It's painfully clear that Craig Biggio is out due to the Steroid Era now. Biggio missed the call by a mere two votes, and we have one person who we know, in not voting for any of the three in, said he would not vote for ANY player of this era.
Now that the vote has been announced, Deadspin has revealed the identity of it's voter -- the person who received money to have his vote turned over to a popular vote by Deadspin readers.
It's not a no-name, in any sense of the word.
ESPN is probably looking for a new television personality/columnist. After another voter fell through to fault of nobody (and it sounds like that's a go for next year), the person who sold his vote to Deadspin is nobody other than ESPN's Dan Le Betard, the host (with his father) of "Highly Questionable".
He's going to get fired. He has to be. Yes, the ballot included most of the ESPN memes (Bonds, Clemens, Bagwell, Piazza), and the three who got in, and Biggio.
But now that he's been revealed as the biggest fraud this side of no up-or-down on Pete Rose in Cooperstown, I can't see how ESPN can retain this guy.
Ouch.
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Some thoughts on the balloting, just quickly:
- Biggest class voted in since 1999. Biggest class of living people going in since 1941, with the Veteran's Committee honorees.
- 18 voters did not vote for Maddux. Maddux' percentage is the highest since Cal Ripken, Jr. in 2007.
- Jack Morris now has to go to the Veteran's Committee, as he has gone the full 15 years without getting the requisite 75%.
- Mike Piazza is the only other player (other than Biggio) to gain ground on induction this year. At 62.2 percent, it is unclear how many more years Piazza may have to wait.
- The third Atlanta pitcher of that major group, John Smoltz, is one of the leaders of next year's 1st-years. Randy Johnson is on the ballot, as is Pedro Martinez. Early reports appear to posit another possible three-man class next year: Johnson, Pedro, Biggio.
- All the roidies went down in percentage of vote. It's not clear whether ESPN is losing ground in an argument it's beating the drums hard on, or whether there just were that many locks on the ballot.
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